Angelo simonini



No. 623,572. Patented Apr. 25, I899. A. smomm.

GAS LIGHTING DEVICE.

(Application filed June 24, 1898.)

No Modal.)

W n a w llNrTnD STATES ATENT Erica,

ANGELO SIMONINI, OF NE\V YORK, N. Y.

GAS-LIGHTING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 623,572, dated April 25, 1899.

Application filed June 24,1898. Serial No. 684,375. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that'I, ANGELO SIMONINI, a subject of the Emperor of Austria-I'Iungary, residing at New York, in the county of New- York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas- Lighting Devices, of which the following isa specification.

My invention has reference to means for igniting combustible orinflammable gases and vapors; and it consists, essentially, in more or less completely encompassing or enveloping a preliminary-heating preparation of the character hereinafter set forth in wire of the-platinum group, whereby the wire is made to hold and protect the heating preparation and the latter is caused to heat the wire, so that the capacity of the wire to absorb oxygen is increased and it is enabled to become highly incandescent, and consequently capable of igniting the gas or vapor.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a view of the lighting attachm ent in its preferred form; Figs. 2 and 3,views of the fabric forming the vehicle or carryingbody of the preliminary-heating device, Fig. 2 showing the fabric preparatory to treatment, and Fig.3 representing the same rolled into cylindrical form preparatory to being ashed or burned out.

The device here described is primarily intended for use in connection with ordinary gas-burners of the bat-wing or'fish-tail varieties, but is not confined thereto. Lighting preparations have been proposed which are capable of igniting gases and vapors through their capacity to absorb and condense gases; but in many cases these preparations have been found incapable of prolonged use. A prominent difficulty has been the inability to retain the active elements of the lighting prepe aration in position for a considerable length of time; but aside from this there is also a deterioration of the heat-giving power, which manifests itself Within a comparatively short time and leaves the preparation capable only of giving a moderate glow, but incapable of actually igniting the gas or vapor.

Platinum and other metals of the same group have a quite high capacity of absorbing and condensing gases; but metallic platiiridium, or other metal of the platinum group be preliminarily heated by other means, its avidity for gases is greatly enhanced, and it will absorb oxygen or other gases and con dense them to such an extent as to become highly incandescent and capable of igniting gases and vapors. Having made discovery of this fact, I make use of the platinum wire or other wire of the same group to serve the double purpose of holding or supporting the preliminary-heating preparation and of actuallyigniting the gas. The preliminary-heating preparation may be varied within reasonable limits,butshouldin all cases contain platinumblack,spongy platinum,iridium,orsome other of the substances generally belonging to the platinum group, together with thorium or cerium, which are capable of absorbing and condensing gases and of becoming thereby heated to a greater or less degree. Having made this general explanation, I will describe the preferred embodiment of the invention; but it is to be clearly understood that the precise form of the device is a matter of minor importance and may be varied considerably, provided the essential feature be retained, which is the envelopment. more or less complete of the preliminary heater of the character described in or by wire or filaments of platinum, iridium,or other metals of the platinum group suitable to the purpose.

To produce the preliminary heater, 1 preferably make use of a woven or knitted cotton fabric from which may be cut a small piece 1 an inch to aninch and ahalf in length and from one-half to three-quarters of an inch in width, more or less, which fabric is immersed in one or another of the solutions of the following list of a strength of approximately one liter of water with five hundred to seven hundred and fifty grams of the salt mixture or compound:

1. Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent; iridium chlorid, 0.2 .to two per cent.

2. Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per ICO cent. platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent.; osmium chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent. (Osmium in this combination is not volatile.)

Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent; rhodium chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

4. Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent. ruthenium ehlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

5. Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent; palladium chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

6. Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent; platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent. neodymium nitrate, 0.2 to two per cent.

7. Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent; praseodymium nitrate, 0.2 to two per cent.

8. Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy to thirty per cent; didymium nitrate, 0.2 to two per cent.

1). Thorium nitrate, thirty to seventy per cent. platinum ehlorid, seventy to thirty per cent; cerium nitrate, 0.2 to two per cent.

10. Cerium nitrate, hWQHLY-fiXG to seventyfive per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy-five to twenty-five per cent; iridium-chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

11. Cerium nitrate, twenty-five to seven tyiive per cent; platinum chlorid, seventy-five to twenty-five per cent.; osmium chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

12. Cerium nitrate, twenty-five to seventyllve per cent; platinum chlorid, seventy-five to twenty-five per cent; ruthenium chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

13. Cerium nitrate, twenty-five to seventylive per cent. platinum chlorid, seventy-five to twenty-five per cent. rhodium chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

14. Cerium nitrate, twenty-five to seventylive per cent. )latinum chlorid, seventy-five to twenty-five per cent; palladium chlorid, 0.2 to two per cent.

Of course the platinum and cerium or platinum and thorium will jointly equal one hundred percent. less the percentagerepresented by iridium, osmium, rhodium, or the like.

The fabric having been immersed in one or another of these solutions is advisably rolled into the form of a cylinder, as shown in Fig. 3, and is then placed within a cage or holder 3, which may be woven of very fine wire, preferably of either platinum or iridium, platinum being preferred because of the greater facility with which it may be drawn into wire and fashioned or woven. In Fig. 1 I have represented this cage or holder as carried in a yoke 4. at the upper end of a bimetallic bar 5, which is preferably fashioned into a spiral coil and made fast to a stud or other support secured or located in proximity to a bu rner-tip (i. This arrangement is adopted with a view to having the lighter swing away from and out of the flame after ignition of the gas or vapor, but is not essential.

The idea of: automatically removing a lighter in this way is not of my invention and is shown merely as a preferred means of applyin g the improved lighter,which may,however, be left permanently in the path of the gas. The preliminary-heating device when acted upon by the stream of gas flowing from the burner absorbs hydrogen from the gas and oxygen from the air, condenses the gases upon its surface, and speedily becomes heated, so as to glow more or less intensely. The heat thus generated is transmitted by contact or by radiation to the wire cage or holder 3, which being thusheated in turn absorbs oxygen from the atmosphere with great avidity and becomes highly heated and brilliantly incandescent, in which condition it speedilyignites the gas flowing from the burner or tube. If the cage or holder 3 be woven of fine mesh, it will in great measure, if not entirely, precl ude the escape or loss of the exciting agents deposited by the solution in the webbing or fabric 1, and it will in any event maintain the fabric or the cylinder 2 formed therefrom in position and protect it against being jarred or shaken to any considerable extent in use even though moved to and from the path of the gas. The mere lighting effect incident-to the use of the wire may be attained through the use of a simple coil of the wire or of a limited length thereof in any form in close proximity to the preliminary heater, and therefore I mean to claim the combination of the wire with the preliminary heater of the character described regardless of the form in which the wire is employed; but I regard the cage or netting as being peculiarly advantageous in that it retains and protects the preliminary heater and by reason of its extended surface is more efficient in action than would be the shorter plain wire.

As above suggested, the preliminary heater may vary somewhat, but should in any event contain thorium or cerium with platinum, which elements or substances may best be supplied by treating the holding body or vehicle with one or another of the solutions recited, and I deem the use of a fabric saturated with such solution and rolled into compact form as a very desirable form of heater.

If desired, the fabric 1 may be formed in whole or in part of threads having a filament of wire spun with the vegetable filaments. lVhen such fabric is used it will be found expedient to first impregnate the same with an aqueous solution of platinum and thorium or platinum and cerium in the proportions of from sixty to forty per cent. of platinum and forty to sixty percent. of thorium or of cerium and after drying the fabric thus impregnated to immerse it in a second solution of the character set forth in the foregoing list, numbered 1 to 14. Care should be taken, however, to

use for the second impregnation one of the solutions numbered 1 to 9, inclusive, if a platinum-thorium solution be employed for the first impregnation or to use one of the solutions numbered 10 to 14 for such second impregnation if the first impregnation be with a platinum-cerium solution.

I have above spoken of platinum wire and of iridium wire; but in practice I find it advisable to employ an alloy of ninety-five per cent. platinum and five per cent. iridium, as this may be more readily drawn into fine wire than either pure platinum orpure iridium, the latter being peculiarly difficult to draw.

The true or precise scientific theory upon which to account for the action of the platinum or iridium or platinum-iridium wire I do not attempt to give, since that has not been determined with such certainty as to justify a positive statement. The fact has been definitely ascertained and repeatedly demonstrated, and I therefore state the discovery and the preferred mode of embodying and utilizing the same Without attempting to do more, the information given being sufficient to enable the public to secure the full benefit of the invention or discovery.

I am aware that it has been proposed, to moisten a mixture of sand and pulverized asbestos with a saturated .solution of platinum chlorid for the purpose of bringing the mass to the consistency of putty, to form from this composition small pellets or blocks, to wrap these blocks or pellets tightly with asbestos fiber,and, finally, to bind the same with platinum wire, the block so prepared being employed in connection with stretched plat-inum wires. I make no claim to such a lighter.

Practical experience and extended and thorough investigation have shown conclusively that to attain commercially satisfactory or useful results it is essential that the preliminary-heating body be freely exposed to the action of the gas or mingled gas and air, that it be of such open construction that the gas and air may pass freely through its pores or meshes, and that, provided only the platinum wire be near enough to become reasonably heated or warmed, it is not essential or material that it be in direct or immediate contact with the preliminary heater.

So far as I am aware it'has never before beendiscovered or observed that platinum wire or wire of the platinum group can be made to absorb and condense gases in vastlyincreased quantity or degree by merely subjecting it to a preliminary heating, nor has any one proposed, so far as I am advised,to form of such wire an open cage or holder to contain and protect the preliminary heater, yet permit free passage and circulation of gas and air through it and through or in contact with the contained heater, which conditions I find highly important to the successful operation of the device.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. An igniting device for gases and vapors,- comprising a preliminary heater containing cerium or thorium and platinum in substantially the proportions stated, and an open enveloping cage or holder formed of wire of the platinum group.

2. An igniting device for gases and vapors, comprising a preliminary heater capable of absorbing gases and condensing them, and a foraminous enveloping cage or holder formed of wire of the platinum group.

3. The herein-described lighter comprising a fabric impregnated with a platinum-thorium or platinum-cerium solution and rolled into compact form, and a cage or holder 3 enveloping the fabric and formed of wire of the platinum group.

In witness whereof I hereunto set myhand in the presence of two witnesses.

ANGELO SIMONIN I.

' WVitnesses:

Tnos. ADAMS, J r., H. M. ADAMS. 

